Where Are They Now?

Formerly Well-Known Pacific Officers Are Scattered Far and Wide

By Na Matanivanua

TO the old island resident a browse through that section of Whitaker’s Almanack devoted to the Colonial Empire is full of interest, listing as it does, Government departmental officials in each colony—not all of them, of course, but all departmental heads and, in many cases, deputies.

Whitaker’s for 1948 shows that colonial officials travel far and wide, and in some cases, frequently which has often led to their being referred to as birds-of passage with no real interest in the lands in which they serve.

Here are some of the former island officials whose names appear on the lists for other colonies in the current edition of Whitaker. I do not pretend that it is an exhaustive list—these are merely names known to the writer as those of ex-islanders: Bermuda: Chief Justice Sir Brooke Francis, who started his colonial service career in Fiji in the early part of this century, and left there in 1921 for British Honduras, subsequently serving in Zanzi bar Tanganyika and Northern Rhodesia.

British Guiana: Director of Medical Services Dr. H. B. Hetherington, QBE, formerly of the British Solomon Islands; and Director of Public Works H. E.

Smythe, formerly of Fiji.

Leeward Islands: Director of Agricul ture, R. Johns, OBE, formerly of Fiji.

Trinidad: Under-Secretary. A. R. W.

Robertson, until recently Financial Secre tary in Fiji.

Windward Islands: Governor Sir Arthur Grimble, KCMG, who was Resident Com missioner in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony in the 20’s and 30’s, until he went to St. Vincent as administrator.

St. Vincent: Administrator R. H.

Garvey, CMG, OBE, probably one of the best known Pacific administrators, for he served in the Solomons, the Gilbert and Ellice and headquarters of the Western Pacific High Commission in Suva before going to Nyasaland, thence the West Indies.

Gibraltar: Captain of the Port G. B.

Nasmyth, who served as Harbourmaster both at Suva and Levuka.

Gold Coast: Auditor R. F. Binder, OBE, once of Fiji and recently of Palestine.

Hongkong: Governor Sir Alexander Grantham, KCMG. until recently Gov ernor of Fiji.

Kenya: Governor Sir Philip Mitchell, GCMG, wartime Governor of Fiji and Chief Secretary J. D. Rankine, CMG, war time assistant secretary in Fiji and lately

Colonial Secretary Barbados, who seems to be following rapidly in his dis tinguished father’s footsteps.

Rankine is a real islander, having been born in Fiji, the son of Sir Richard Rankine, who started his career in Fiji in 1894, going from there in 1920 to Nyasaland, thence Uganda and Zanzibar, from where he retired in 1937, then be ing British Resident in Zanzibar.

Also in Kenya is Puisne Judge R. S.

Thacker, one time Attorney-General in Fiji.

Malayan Union: Chief Secretary A. T.

Newboult, wartime Colonial Secretary in Fiji.

Singapore; Chief Justice C. M. Murray- Aynsley former Chief Justice in Tonga.

Mauritius: Assistant Secretary K. V.

Macquire, once of the Fiji Secretariat and at various times a district commissioner in the colony.

Nigeria: Deputy Financial Secretary A. W. L. Savage, who held a similar post in Fiji; Comptroller of Customs W. T. (“Jock”) Martin, also ex-Fiji; Public Re lations Officer Harold Cooper, who held a similar post in Fiji during the war.

Nyasaland: Chief Justice Sir Edward Jenkins, who, as Mr. E. E. Jenkins, was Attorney-General in Fiji.

Palestine: Acting District Commissioner Gaza, W. F. M. Clemens, formerly of the Solomons, and well known for his wartime exploits when the Japanese occupied the group.

Northern Rhodesia: Commissioner of Police J. E. Workman, who was also police chief in Fiji; Postmaster General C. O.

Taylor, former Assistant PMG in Fiji; and Auditor L. H. Pope, who was once Fiji and Western Pacific auditor.

St. Helena: Governor G. A. Joy, CMG, previously British Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides.

Sierra Leone: Attorney-General Ragnar Hyne, who previously served in Tonga, the Solomons and Fiji.

Newfoundland is not. strictly speaking, one of the Crown colonies, and the post of Commissioner for Public Utilities and Supply in that country is a far call from the Pacific, yet it is an Islands man fill ing the job.—J. S. Neill, CMG, who started his career in Fiji, but probably best known for his many years of service as British Agent and Consul in Tonga, from which post he went to the West Indies.

TiHEN there are some who have dis appeared from the pages of the current Whitaker. The 1947 edition listed A. Hallam Roberts as Attorney- General in Zanzibar. Roberts, who served as Chief Police Magistrate in Fiji, has presumably retired.

Also in the 1947 Whitaker, under Aden, was listed the name of John Goepel, as chairman of the Township Authority.

That post is not listed in the 1948 edition.

Fiji residents of the late 20’s and early 30’s will remember him as a cadet and District Commissioner.

Another who has disappeared from the colonial service pages of Whitaker pops up again in the Peerage—the first Baron Milverton —better known to Fijians as Sir Arthur Richards, one of the most able administrators the colony ever had, whose stay was all too short before he was called to Jamaica, thence Nigera, whence he retired last year.

C. J. J. T. Barton, CMG, QBE. former Colonial Secretary, Fiji, and last listed as Chief Secretary, Nyasaland, has retired from that post and now appears in the Colonial Office list as a temporary admin istrative officer.

“11/TIO’S WHO” is also a source of in- W formation concerning former island officials, and here are a few I have come across: Sir Murchison Fletcher, KCMG, CBE, ex-Governor of Fiji and then of Trini dad, now living retired in London.

Sir Guy Pilling, KCMG, in Fiji from 1907 till 1929, and then in British

G. A. Joy.

Ragnar Hyne.

W. F. M. Clemens.

Sir Alexander Grantham.

Sir Philip Mitchell.

Baron Milverton.

A. R. W. Robertson.

Honduras. Kenya, St. Helena, and Zanzi bar latterly as British Resident, also now retired.

A. A. Wright. CMG, who commenced his service in Fiji in 1912. and eventu ally became Secretary for Native Affairs before his transfer to St. Vincent and thence St. Lucia as administrator in each case. On his retirement in 1943 he entered the commercial world as managing director of the Jamaica Starch Milling Co., l td., from which he retired in 1946 and is now living in Jamaica.

Sir Percy McElwaine. Attorney-General in Fiji from 1927 to 1930. then in Singa pore. where he eventually became Chief Justice. He was interned by the Japanese from 1942 till 1945 and retired in 1946.

Sir Maxwell Maxwell-Anderson, once Chief Justice of Fiji, living retired in Malta.

A. W. Seymour. CMG, Colonial Secretary in Fiii in Sir Murchison Fletcher’s time, and later Colonial Secretary Trinidad, now living retired in England.

Last but not least, “Who’s Who” re veals that a very famous wartime figure had a link with the Islands. Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Lord Tedder, em barked on a Colonial Service career in ‘p’iii in 1914, but joined up for World War T soon afterwards and never returned to the Colonial service.